Heat, -Enriched Boric Acid, and Bromide as Recycled Groundwater Tracers for Managed Aquifer Recharge: Case Study
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 3
Abstract
California guidelines for indirect potable recycled wastewater reuse projects currently require groundwater tracers to demonstrate subsurface residence time for pathogenic microorganism control. Residence times over 6 months from infiltration to drinking water extraction are required. Two prospective tracers were evaluated in this case study: boron-10 (as -enriched boric acid) and heat (with recharging water warmer than native groundwater). Bromide () was also released as a control. is attractive as a deliberate tracer because (1) reasonably accurate and affordable measurements can be made on an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) system, and (2) isotopic tracers require significantly less mass to tag an equivalent water volume than concentration-based salt tracers like . and tracer breakthroughs were observed at seven of nine monitoring wells, although at one well the detection of was barely observable and may have resulted from a slight change in source water composition. arrived 25% later than on average, showing retardation through exchange with clay surfaces. Heat flow, requiring no artificial input, was interpreted from temperature changes recorded hourly at well loggers. Residence times to all wells were successfully determined from temperature changes with the longest flow path of 6 months. This implies that dilution of and is a limitation the geochemical tracer experiment.
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Acknowledgments
This project was funded by the WateReuse Research Foundation (WRF-09-11) in cooperation with the Water Replenishment District of Southern California and the Orange County Water District. The authors thank Peter Piestrzeniewicz and Benny Chong from WRD for their assistance in field operations and for providing well logger data, as well as Nicole Gee and Andrew Benson for their field and laboratory work at UCSB.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 3 • March 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 6, 2013
Accepted: Jul 18, 2014
Published online: Sep 26, 2014
Discussion open until: Feb 26, 2015
Published in print: Mar 1, 2015
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